Community Code of Conduct

[PandelisZ]

So after reading through some of the other community assessments namely Edinburgh Tech Learners, as well as @joenash feedback on my own. I thought HaCS should have one so that we have one to fallback on if and when we need it. As well as keeping the community clean and welcoming obviously.

So I have taken inspiration from all over the place and started work on a code of conduct for my community. For those interested in creating a code of conduct for yourselves here are the ones I looked at:

• The Rust Code of Conduct
• Major League Hacking Code of Conduct
• HackSmiths Code of Conduct
• Contributor Covenant v1.4
• Hack Code of Conduct
• Citizen Code of Conduct

You can find the conduct itself here: https://github.com/HaCSBCU/conduct

All feedback welcome, is it too much, is it not enough, is it too software-y and not community-y? Please share your views. You can leave feedback on that repo but it's probably best to keep it here because it could be especially useful to others here.

[PandelisZ]

For simplicity's sake here is the conduct itself in its current form:

Conduct

We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other similar characteristic.

Please avoid using overtly sexual nicknames or other nicknames that might detract from a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all.

Please be kind and courteous. There’s no need to be mean or rude.

Respect that people have differences of opinion.

Private harassment is also unacceptable.

No matter who you are, if you feel you have been or are being harassed or made uncomfortable by a community member, please contact one of the active commitee members.

Expected Behavior

The following behaviors are expected and requested of all community members:

Participate in an authentic and active way. In doing so, you contribute to the health and longevity of this community.

Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions.

Attempt collaboration before conflict.

Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech.

Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants. Alert community leaders if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this Code of Conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

Remember that some of our events may be open to non members. Please be respectful to all parties at our events.

Unacceptable Behavior

The following behaviors are considered harassment and are unacceptable within our community:

Violence, threats of violence or violent language directed against another person.

Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.

Posting or displaying sexually explicit or violent material.

Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information ("doxing").

Personal insults, particularly those related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or disability.

Inappropriate photography or recording.

Inappropriate physical contact. You should have someone’s consent before touching them.

Unwelcome sexual attention. This includes, sexualized comments or jokes; inappropriate touching, groping, and unwelcomed sexual advances.

Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following (online or in person).

Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.

Sustained disruption of community events, including talks and presentations.

Consequences of Unacceptable Behavior

Unacceptable behavior from any community member, including sponsors and those with decision-making authority, will not be tolerated.

Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately.

If a community member engages in unacceptable behavior, the community organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including a temporary ban or permanent expulsion from the community without warning (and without refund in the case of a paid event).

Attribution

This code of conduct in adapted from and inspired by

• The Rust Code of Conduct
• Major League Hacking Code of Conduct
• HackSmiths Code of Conduct
• Contributor Covenant v1.4
• Hack Code of Conduct
• Citizen Code of Conduct

[joenash]

I'd recommend adding a more detailed procedure to handling incidents, like you can find in this example: https://github.com/phalt/londonapi-code-of-conduct/blob/master/readme.md or on the MLH repo: https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/master/incident-response.md https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/master/disciplinary-action.md

Other than that, looking good! A big thing to consider is how you empower committee members to enforce the code of conduct. Consider training them in conflict resolution and doing role play of incidents, and also talking to uni security and providing contact details to committee members in worst case scenario.

[PandelisZ]

Best to be covered in all circumstances, I shall look into that but I'd need to get feedback from the rest of the commitee and probly bring it up to our SU aswell to help us out. Our students union can also be the third party resolver in that case too, which they already are, although undocumented and with non transaparent prodecures.

And yes! Would definately need to add in some training for handing over commitees, although some basic training is provided by our SU aswell

[juanpflores]

Hey @PandelisZ 👋 !
I'm dealing with a similar situation in my community. It's looking really good and the fact that you checked other codes of conduct is amazing. I would only change the line Please avoid using overtly sexual nicknames or other nicknames that might detract from a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all. to the Unacceptable Behavior section since you're mentioning what not to do/ is not acceptable.

Apart from that it looks good. @joenash comment is vital for any code of conduct. It's not only having a Code of Conduct but also knowing how and when to use it. Some hackathons provide training for their staff to disengage this situations and has proven to decrease the impact of hackers that break the Code of Conduct.

[PandelisZ]

Thanks for that @juanpflores I shall amend that accordingly.

It's not only having a Code of Conduct but also knowing how and when to use it. Some hackathons provide training for their staff to disengage this situations and has proven to decrease the impact of hackers that break the Code of Conduct.

True that. Fo us within our community I think subtle enforcement and generally just the existence of a protocol like this will also help tackle a few points of subtle sexism, inappropriate behavior and inappropriate topics sometimes occurring when the group meets in person. Hopefully this will serve to nullify that and make the environment generally friendlier

[PandelisZ]

@sprusr ^ probably relevant to you also it seems

[joenash]

General advice: Be cautious about being too explicit about what is not okay. By clearly drawing out the dos/don'ts with explicit examples, you draw lines that abusers can walk around to still abuse. Leave it a bit vague, drawing on intents rather than actions. If you focus on actions, and an abuser finds a way to act outside those, they'll then hit you with your own writing when you try to enforce. Trolls love to question authority to act against them.

For example, with the nickname section:

Please avoid using overtly sexual nicknames or other nicknames that might detract from a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all.

Could be better rephrased to:

Please avoid referring to others by terms that could be offensive, to both those you are referring to, and others around them. This includes (but is not limited to) sexist, sexual, racist, appearance-based, experience-based and age-based references.

[PandelisZ]

Relevant new feature just added to github:

https://help.github.com/articles/adding-a-code-of-conduct-to-your-project/